Vermont

WASHINGTON-- Curbing guns can't ensure an end to mass slayings like December's killings of 20 first-graders in Newtown, Conn., but it will reduce firearm deaths, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday.

NEW YORK, Feb 1- U.S. stock index futures gained on Friday as investors anticipated data that was expected to show that U.S. jobs growth picked up in January. If the jobs figure is weaker than expected, the market could be vulnerable to a pullback, tipping the S&P 500 off its best monthly performance since October 2011.

The website VermontGasPrices.com shows the lowest prices ranging from $3.45 in Brattleboro to $3.53 around the state. Higher prices of$ 3.79 a gallon were found at stations in Williston, Vergennes, Bethel and Killington in the last two days. The website shows that the average price per gallon has gone up 11 cents from $3.54 to $3.65 in the last month.

WASHINGTON, Feb 1- Only 11 of the 50 U.S. states have moved to implement new consumer safeguards under President Barack Obama's healthcare law, raising questions about how major health insurance reforms will be enforced, a report released on Friday says.

CONCORD, N.H.-- A 70- year-old California woman who was a trustee at a private school and a retired business counselor with the U.S. Commerce Department was stabbed to death in a random attack in a New Hampshire hotel lobby by another guest, authorities said Tuesday.

*Honeywell, McDonald's profit despite shaky sales. McDonald's Corp was able to beat Wall Street's profit forecasts by keeping its locations open on Christmas and rolling out the cult favorite McRib sandwich in December.

*S&P 500 poised to rally for an eighth straight day. *Dow up 0.2 pct, S&P 500 up 0.2 pct, Nasdaq up 0.4 pct. Procter& Gamble shares rose 3.7 percent to $73.04 and gave the biggest boost to both the Dow and S&P 500 after the world's top household products maker's quarterly profit soared past expectations.

Reports released by the governor's office say Vermonters would have to pay $1.6 billion in new taxes to pay for their share of a single-payer system that can't be implemented until 2017. But that would be more than offset by the fact that most individual and employers would no longer be buying private health insurance, a savings of $1.9 billion, the report said.

NEW YORK-- Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. got a boost Friday after an analyst noted that sales of a competing coffee brewer introduced by Starbucks appeared soft out of the gate.

Peter Shumlin on Thursday proposed a fiscal 2014 budget that would raise $17 million for energy programs through a new tax on certain betting tickets sold in bars and social clubs, and place new time limits on participating in the state welfare-to-work program. An aide to the governor said patrons typically pay $1 for the tickets that have payoffs up to $50.

MONTPELIER, Vt.-- A new state report concludes that smart meters that utilities give Vermont customers to measure power consumption and save energy emit far less potentially harmful material than considered safe by the Federal Communications Commission.

MONTPELIER, Vt.-- Vermont can boast the country's highest high school graduation rate, 91.4 percent, edging out Wisconsin by three-tenths of a point, according to a report released by U.S. Education Department on Tuesday. Vermont has traditionally been among the states with the highest graduation rates so being at the top this year wasn't a surprise.

That was the theory more than a decade ago when Vermont began taxing electric bills to pay for a statewide energy efficiency program that is widely regarded as a big success.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.-- The federal government reports that New Mexico's graduation rate for the 2009-2010 was 67.3 percent. The rates are being reported by the National Center for Education Statistics, which is part of the U.S. Department of Education. States' rates ranged from 57.8 percent in Nevada at the low end to 91.4 percent in Vermont at the high end.

"We're seeing some life-threatening temperatures in Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin," said meteorologist Mike Sowko of the National Weather Service. Winds blasting across the Great Lakes over the past few days into Tuesday also resulted in up to 18 inches of snow dumped over northeast Ohio, northwest Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

"We're seeing some life-threatening temperatures in Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin," said meteorologist Mike Sowko of the National Weather Service. Winds blasting across the Great Lakes over the past few days into Tuesday also resulted in up to 18 inches of snow dumped over northeast Ohio, northwest Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

WASHINGTON-- The nation's high school graduation rate is the highest since 1976, but more than a fifth of students are still failing to get their diploma in four years, the Education Department said in a study released Tuesday. That wasn't true 10 or 15 years ago, "Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press.